April 21, 2004, Penang/Manila. On the eve of Earth Day 2004, a global environmental health coalition today launched a report that promises a sustainable remedy to the rising waste problems in developing countries. The report Resources up in Flames: The Economic Pitfalls of Incineration versus a Zero Waste Approach in the Global South was released by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), who challenged policy makers to redirect the millions of dollars lined up for incinerators into waste prevention and reduction and zero waste systems.

Says Ann Leonard, GAIA Co-Coordinator: “Incineration encourages a one-way flow of materials on a finite planet. It makes the task of conserving resources and reducing waste more difficult, not easier. Policy makers and citizens need to work together to advance sustainable community-based solutions, without incineration. ”

According to Resources up in Flames, prepared by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in Washington, D.C. for GAIA, municipal solid waste incinerators – no matter where they are built – have numerous liabilities. In addition to generating pollution and harming public health, they:
· place huge financial burdens on host communities;
· drain local communities of financial resources;
· waste energy and materials;
· thwart local economic development;
· undermine waste prevention and rational approaches to discard management;
· have an operating experience checkered with problems;
· can go financially bankrupt from tonnage shortfalls; and
· often leave citizens and taxpayers paying the bill.

Brenda Platt, Co-Director of ILSR and the primary author of the report, asks: “Why invest millions of dollars in a technology that at the end of 30 years leaves you with a pile of potentially toxic ash, when that same money could be redirected to readily available cheaper and safer options that create many more jobs, new businesses, and wealth for local communities.” The report indicates that just sorting recyclables alone in the U.S. can sustain at least 11 times the number of jobs as incineration on a per-ton basis.

S. M. Mohamed Idris, President of Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) commented that, “It is unfortunate that the Malaysian government also favours the costly and deadly incinerator technology which is a non-solution for its waste problems instead of adopting proven, safe and sustainable discard management systems. The proposed 1,500-tonne-day capacity incinerator in Broga, Selangor purportedly costing RM1.5 billion and other solid waste incinerators proposed in the states of Pahang, Penang, Johor and elsewhere are not lasting solutions to our waste problems.”

“What Malaysia needs is a holistic, community-driven approach that focuses on waste prevention, reduction, segregation at source, recycling and composting. With the active participation of the public, the government and the industry, we can put a stop to wasting, conserve our resources and safeguard public health.”

While the report introduces the concept and need for zero waste planning and highlights the growing worldwide zero-waste movement and numerous examples of communities embracing such an approach, it emphasizes that non-burn alternatives are within reach of communities today and can pay immediate economic dividends. In the global South, where organic material – yard trimmings and food scraps – is the single largest component of the waste stream, appropriately designed composting programs will be the easiest, quickest, and least-expensive method to divert discards from disposal.

Resources up in Flames: The Economic Pitfalls of Incineration versus a Zero Waste Approach in the Global South is a 75-page report, supported by more than 100 footnotes. It contains hard-hitting facts, model programs, and failed incinerator examples. The first half of the report is devoted to the economic problems posed by incinerators and includes a section on how to evaluate a planned incinerator. The second half focuses on non-burn alternatives readily available, and concludes with a 10-step plan for getting starting on the path toward zero waste at the local level.

The report is available as a PDF file on GAIA’s web site, located at http://www.no-burn.org. It is being translated into more than a dozen languages. The executive summary of the report has been translated into Malay by CAP. Resources up in Flames is the third report published by GAIA since it was formed in December 2000. GAIA released The World Bank Group and Incineration: Bankrolling Dirty Technologies in 2002 and Waste Incineration: A Dying Technology in 2003.

GAIA is an international alliance of community-based organizations, research and policy advocacy institutions, citizen pressure groups and other nonprofit organizations and individuals working to end the burning of all types of discards and to promote clean production, zero waste and sustainable waste management systems. CAP and SAM are members of GAIA. For more information on GAIA, log onto its web site at www.no-burn.org.

S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS
President
Consumers’ Association of Penang and
Sahabat Alam Malaysia